Tom,

For some reason during 1968 some REMF decided that body bags were bad for morale. The 4th Infantry would wrap the dead in their poncho like some cruel Spartan symbol like being carried back on your shield. Most of the time I was given their ID cards and told to give them to the personal which unloaded our departed brothers. They would secure the poncho around the body with that black commo wire that was used with the field phones.

The wounded were the ones that really bothered me. You really couldn't do that much for them. Pass out cigarettes and water and maybe talk to them. Put your flight jacket on them to keep them warm until you got to the aid station.

I hated the ARVINs. The little bastards would try to put the seats down because they didn't want to sit on the floor. They would try to steal the first aid kits and anything else which wasn't nailed down. You would not get off the ship in a hot LZ and you would have to throw them off the ship. If you went in to get the wounded you would have six of their buddies trying to get on the ship. I had them hanging on the skids and actually had to point my weapon at them to get them off the ship. Sometimes I think we should have been on the NVA's side. At least they were committed to what they were doing.

I didn't mind the stuff connected with the ship or guard duty or some of the other stuff. The one thing that really got to me was some of the chicken shit that we would get caught up in. I remember having to put new sand bags around the hootch because some brass thought ours were dirty. Christ they were filled with dirt. How else would they look? Another time when we got to the new company area in 1969 they had details to go gather rocks and outline the Orderly Room perimeter. The whole area was dirt until the monsoon season came and then it was mud.

The one thing you have to admit, it was an adventure. It was a good thing I was young because I would have never done any of it knowing what I know now.